But Amos would not go home while hate burned within him, so he sat on a boulder by the roadside and faced his mountain.
That was the day the men of Marlborough and Dublin had set fire raging on Monadnock to drive out the wolves and bears that had been doing damage among the herds pastured on the slopes. Amos watched the fire climb slowly at first, starting from a dozen different places; then like a wall of destruction it moved up the steep sides until the flames met and linked in a vast pyramid of fire at the summit, consuming everything that could be consumed and leaving the mountain smoldering.
Hate could do that to a man, Amos thought, consume him and leave him smoldering. But he was a free man, and free at great cost, and he would not put himself in bondage again.